stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

lol hollinger praising the suns for signing a bunch of minimum guys as if thats not indicative of the whole problem with their team

all of those guys are actively bad which is why theyre minimum players

hollinger panned the beal trade pretty hard when it happened, I think his point is that they’d put themselves into a tough spot with that deal and they did about as much as they could have since then considering the circumstances

lol hollinger praising the suns for signing a bunch of minimum guys as if thats not indicative of the whole problem with their team

― lag∞n, Monday, July 3, 2023 11:05 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol exactly, swapped some names for more names. none of these are guys, just names.

I’m just grousing a little, guys like DSJ and bates-diop are the sorts of players I was naively hoping would want to play for the nuggets after what happened last season

what a bizarre roster the suns have

yeah maybe he knows something I don't but this seems a bit different than what the Heatles or last year's Lakers did. to me it just looks like they may have a good garbage time lineup

watanabe was just in a playoff series where his team needed any help it could get to even be competitive and he played 5 mins in a 20 point game one loss and then got 3 straight DNPs

damion lee averaged 11 mpg in the playoffs and put up 2/1/1 averages on 30/20 shooting

okogie shot 2-14 from three in the playoffs

i'm not up on bates-diop game so maybe he's the skeleton key but he's a 27 year old who has taken 5 total shots in the playoffs in his career

the way even the smart ppl in the NBA media talk about this suns team is farcical

I misread WME as WWE and was verrrry confused for a second.

the idea that the suns & lakers "got better" and now the west is better just highlights to me that the nuggets have a complete cakewalk back to the finals. the warriors are still the only team i'd say w/ any confidence could maybe sorta put up a real fight in the best case scenario but even that feels unlikely. imo it's reminiscent of the big 3 cavs years when they could sleepwalk thru three straight rounds.

We can’t say the Suns might have “won” free agency just yet — to do that, they need at least one of these guys to be a plus next June – but in terms of value for the dollar, this might be some of the best 48 hours we’ve ever seen.

i know hollinger's whole thing since he left front office work is elevating fringes of the roster marginalia to the level of headline transactions but this has to be one of the craziest things written about the NBA in years

For the frontcourt, Cleveland went after Georges Niang, who might not be worth $26 million over three years on some other rosters but could easily justify it on this one.

this is a great look into front office brain... "this contract is bad for everyone but us"

lol

sure we just signed a 30 y/o guy nicknamed the minivan to a three year deal but what if thats good not bad

i think the nuggets got worse is the thing, or stayed flat at best. they only played 6 dudes in the playoffs when it mattered and they lost their 4th best one. braun gonna have to make a leap and theyll need another youngster to step up.

i do think the lakers did smart things on the fringes but they still rely on one inconsistent and oft injured big and extremely old lebron to reach their ceiling.

free agency isnt over tho

it is now, pack it up everyone sorry to all the players who didnt make it

denver is also a team that asks very little of their role players. they're in a position to elevate scrap heap guys in a way that other teams aren't. bruce brown is a good player & it's crazy they got him on that deal last summer but he also averaged 12 ppg on 31% three point shooting in the playoffs, that feels very replaceable for a team that has the player in the NBA who makes the game the easiest on his teammates

like, the margins do typically matter for contenders but the nuggets just went 16-3 in the playoffs. the other teams in the west have a shit ton of ground to make up and the nuggets losing bruce brown & jeff green only accounts for so much of that ground. which is to say very little of it

"but he also averaged 12 ppg on 31% three point shooting in the playoffs, that feels very replaceable for a team that has the player in the NBA who makes the game the easiest on his teammates"

they lost a dude who has that dawg in him tho

dawg man gets paid isn't as catchy as board man gets paid

lol

lopez broz back 2gether again

Free agent center Robin Lopez has agreed to a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Robin and Brook reunited again.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 3, 2023

i think the nuggets got worse is the thing, or stayed flat at best. they only played 6 dudes in the playoffs when it mattered and they lost their 4th best one. braun gonna have to make a leap and theyll need another youngster to step up.

I think the regular season is going to be very similar for them, best starting 5 in the league and an extremely questionable bench. I feel pretty confident saying bruce was their 6th best player, and if the price was really 22 million, then so be it. but yeah braun is going to have to take a step up. peyton watson should hopefully get a chance to prove himself, and vlatko/zeke will hopefully play themselves either into the circle of trust or at least into valuable trade pieces, and then you just have to hope one of the 3 rookies can find a way to give them 15 good minutes. but if I know malone, we’ll be seeing a hefty amount of reggie jackson and justin holiday

for the record I don’t know if I agree with hollinger about the suns, it’s not like all those guys are going to be dependable, but they’re the kind of deals that I was assuming denver would be looking to make *one* of, if not necessarily one of those guys in particular

i'm sure they tried. the suns just have more playing time available for those kinda players than any team in the league

i think i'd be more open to the "nuggets got worse" arguments if i felt like anyone in the west actually got significantly better. the lakers adding gabe vincent and taurean prince is pretty much the best we can do? otherwise they just brought all their guys back at bigger numbers. the warriors & suns reshaped their rosters but i'm unconvinced they actually got better. smart will make memphis better but they still have a thin team & were a first round exit last year. i think dallas' roster is a lot better but again not even a playoff team. it feels like a lot of hoping and wishing

the argument for the dubs going into the season is:

- poole ended up being one of the more destructive players in the league last year, his turnover rate was insane. defense was worst in the league and the collective IQ of the team suffered greatly. replace him with steady asst/to stalwarts (and defensively capable) CP and Cory Joseph and it should stabilize the non-curry minutes, will probably lower their ceiling a bit but raise the floor.
- hopefully wiggins wont disappear for 2 months and then come back when right the playoffs start
- moody and kuminga year 3 jumps should be substantial and make up for any lack of FA signings on the wing - moody showed out in his limited minutes and joku was awesome when wiggins was out to end the reg season
- klay should start the season in shape
- dubs wont be starting the season trying to thread the 2 timelines needle, they are trying to win now and everyone is on board
- the vibes should be better

lakers are only better cos they have a whole season with the guys they got at the trade deadline and added a couple more rotation pieces. should, in theory, lessen the burden on lebron and ad.

I like RoLo for Milwaukee, there really ain’t a lot of decent backup centers out there

i think 2-10 is pretty open in the west, could make a case for the #2 spot with pretty much every team in that mix

- moody and kuminga year 3 jumps should be substantial and make up for any lack of FA signings on the wing - moody showed out in his limited minutes and joku was awesome when wiggins was out to end the reg season

Assuming they put the work in, which tbf I think is kind of an open question.

joku is posting his workouts daily lol

jaquez having a great workout for the blazers scouts in attendance

wemby isn’t playing summer league?!

he's playing in vegas, not in sac

brandon miller with an absolute dogshit first half, champagnie is that dude

when word came out that jordan was all-in on miller i knew with 100% clarity that he'd bomb out of the league and scoot would be all-nba that's just how these things work

karma for the 1984 draft

its pretty funny that everyone knew scoot would be better including an entire bar full of hornets diehards (every hornets diehard)

he ended up having a good shooting 4th quarter after all, but he just looks like hes got a lot of work to do on his game before he can be as good as scoot. he really cannot break down his defender at all. also fouled a lot tonight (7) which doesnt bode well for his D initially.

lotta turnovers, doesn't seem to have the strength to score in the paint on nba guys. both could get fixed in time

his finishing numbers in college combined with so-so athleticism is a scary combo. but he can shoot & that does matter

the #3 overall being better than the #2 feels like nba draft tradition at this point, it's happened so much

I’m so depressed about MY Pistons I had to read the best KD tweets to remind me that I love this stupid game.

I’m tempted to post OUR projected roster but your pity will just annoy me.

pistons have some good young players!

pistons will win the nba playoffs

lol it begins

pistons have some good young players!

― lag∞n, Tuesday, July 4, 2023 10:20 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

norris cole…one of our best young players

norris cole is not on the pistons norris cole is retired